Ghs 7.6 billion used in financing Free SHS not from loans taken, Finance Minister says
Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has denied assertions that monies used in financing the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme are from loans taken by the government.
Addressing such concerns on the floor of Parliament early this week, Mr Ofori-Atta, remarked that the government has not taken any loan facility to specifically finance the Free SHS programme since its inception in September 2017.
According to the Finance Minister, the Free SHS policy has since its inception, been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources.
“Over the past five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the free SHS programme. Out of this amount, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 percent, while the balance of GH¢3.44 billion, representing 45.24 percent, came from ABFA,” he stated.
Concerns of loans being taken to fund the policy were raised by Members of Parliament for the Builisa South Constituency and Bolgatanga Central Constituency respectively, Dr Clement Apaak and Isaac Adongo.
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The two referred to an article published on May 25, 2021, and titled Ghana to Sell Sustainable Bonds for up to US$1 Billion by July by foreign media giant Bloomberg, which quoted Charles Adu Boahen, the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, that the Free SHS was one of the reasons for the issuance of the bond.
“The proceeds would help refinance domestic debt used for social and environmental projects, including loans taken to pay for the government’s free senior secondary school policy,” said Mr Adu Boahen.
Mr Adongo further questioned the Minister on government’s borrowings that had an element dedicated to the Free SHS policy pointing to a GH¢2.4 billion component in the recent $3 billion Eurobond arrangement by the government, specified for funding of the Free SHS policy.
But the Finance Minister in his response, pleaded with the speaker to afford him more time to go and cross-check with data available to the ministry and review the mentioned arrangements and documents, in order to be able to provide the house with the exact facts and figures the next time he appears on the floor without speculating.
The Free SHS policy which is the flagship programme of the incumbent government, was introduced to provide free access to tuition, meals for both boarders and day-students, textbooks, library fees, boarding fees, science laboratory fees, examination fees and utility fees for students of second cycle institutions.
